“Before I got my eye put out” Introduction

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“Before I got my eye put out” Summary

“Before I got my eye put out” Themes

• 

  Sight, Awareness, and Understanding

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• 

  Nature's Overwhelming Wonder and Beauty

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Before I got my eye put out”

• Lines 1-4

  Before I got my eye put out —
  I liked as well to see
  As other creatures, that have eyes —
  And know no other way —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  But were it told to me, Today,
  That I might have the Sky
  For mine, I tell you that my Heart
  Would split, for size of me —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-13

  The Meadows — mine —
  The Mountains — mine —
  All Forests — Stintless stars —
  As much of noon, as I could take —
  Between my finite eyes —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 14-17

  The Motions of the Dipping Birds —
  The Morning’s Amber Road —
  For mine — to look at when I liked,
  The news would strike me dead —

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 18-21

  So safer — guess — with just my soul
  Upon the window pane
  Where other creatures put their eyes —
  Incautious — of the Sun —

  

  

  

  

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“Before I got my eye put out” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Caesura

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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• Irony

  

  

  

  

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• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Before I got my eye put out” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Put out
• Well
• Stintless
• Incautious

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Before I got my eye put out”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Before I got my eye put out” Speaker

“Before I got my eye put out” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Before I got my eye put out”

More “Before I got my eye put out” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Brief Biography — Visit the Poetry Foundation to learn more about Dickinson's life and work.

  • A Discussion of Dickinson — Listen to a podcast in which an expert panel discusses Dickinson.  

  • The Emily Dickinson Museum — Visit the official site of the Dickinson Museum, which publishes a wide range of resources for students.

  • Dickinson's Eye Ailment — Read an article about Dickinson's real-life struggles with her eyesight. 

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to the actor Frances Sterhagen performing the poem.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!